Texas Republican Senate candidate Ted Cruz speaks to the media Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012, in Houston a day after trouncing Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a runoff. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

Texas Republican Senate candidate Ted Cruz speaks to the media Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012, in Houston a day after trouncing Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a runoff. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

Photo: Pat Sullivan, Associated Press

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Cruz takes his place in Senate, history

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WASHINGTON — Six months after shocking the Republican establishment with a grass-roots conservative insurgency, Ted Cruz was sworn into office Thursday, making history by becoming the first U.S. senator of Hispanic ancestry to serve the state of Texas.

“It is a recognition of the changing Texas that we live in,” said the tea party conservative, who succeeds Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Dallas. “It also is a recognition of the opportunity this country holds.”

Cruz's immigrant father, who escaped political tyranny in Cuba 55 years ago, watched from the Senate visitors' gallery as the 42-year-old Houston lawyer was administered the oath of office by Vice President Joe Biden.

“We are a nation whose parents fled oppression and came her seeking freedom,” the former Texas solicitor general said later. “That's the DNA of America.”

Thursday's Senate swearing-in of Cruz and Tim Scott, an African American Republican from South Carolina, marks the first time the GOP has had two minority senators since 1978, when Edward Brooke of Massachusetts and S.I. Hayakawa of California held office.

The historic Texas diversity extended across the Capitol to the House of Representatives, where eight freshman lawmakers from the Lone Star State took office, including three Mexican Americans and one African American.

The additions of Cruz and Democratic Reps. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, Pete Gallego of Alpine, Filemon Vela Jr. of Brownsville and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth make the state's congressional delegation the most ethnically diverse in Texas history.

Eleven of the state's 38 House and Senate members are minorities, far short of the 55.2 percent of the state's population that is non-Anglo, but a larger number than ever before.

“It's a very proud day for Texas,” said Kelly Shackleford, an attorney from Allen, who flew to Washington to celebrate the moment with his friend Cruz. “It's historic in a lot of ways. For Texas to have a Hispanic senator is fabulous.”

The new Texas delegation — which grew by four members as a result of the 2010 census — also provides new clout to the Houston area. Cruz becomes the first U.S. senator from Houston since then-Sen. Lloyd Bentsen resigned to become President Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary in 1993. And with 12 House districts stretching into the Greater Houston area, the local congressional delegation is larger than those of 42 states.

Cruz signaled that he would be more conservative than either Hutchison or fellow Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who voted for the “fiscal cliff” deal negotiated by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden.

Speaking on a conference call with Texas reporters, Cruz called the compromise “a lousy deal” and said he would have voted against it.

The new senator vowed to be an active player in upcoming debates over federal spending cuts and extended the nation's debt limit.

He also pledged to fulfill a campaign promise and make his first legislative proposal a quixotic measure to repeal the 2010 health care law.

“We know to a metaphysical certainty that that bill is not going to pass any time soon,” he said.

Still, he added, he will “work creatively ... to do as much as we can to prevent the implementation of Obamacare.”

Another priority, he said, will be fighting new gun-control measures proposed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre.

“The Second Amendment is a fundamental part of the Bill of Rights,” Cruz said. “I intend to fight vigorously to protect those constitutional rights.”

With his 4-year-old daughter Caroline waving at him from the Senate visitors' gallery, Cruz he took the oath of office on the family bible that his preacher father often had used in their living room to discuss religious principles and Christian values.

He then walked to his desk and took his seat between 75-year-old Thad Cochran of Mississippi and 78-year-old Richard Shelby of Alabama.